Step 8: Well, gosh. congratulations

Step 2: The knife

A knife is always important wether it's for sharpening sticks for traps, gutting animals or cutting sticks down to size to make a bivvy. A knife has come in handy to me more times than you could shake a stick at. lol...

You can make a knife but i find this to be a time consuming effort and is nearly pointless compared to some of the knives you can find on the market. i will however put a link in just incase you were curious with this instructable

I personally always carry a swiss army knife that has a lock on it whenever i go camping, you could however use a bog standard swiss army knife without a lock: upside is it does more stuff (you could probably find one out there with and umbrella on it) downside is you have to be careful because it wont lock. on the other hand a simple lock knife without any add ons is good: upside is it's light weight and simple, downside is there is nothing on there like a can opener or a fish scaler etc. If you really want to go over the top and do infact find yourself stuck in a particularly dense part of the woods/jungle you may want to have a machete handy. i got one whilst i was in uganda and i havent regreted it since.

okay guys, listen up:<br>bear grylls may be trained in the sas, and so is the camera guy, les. <br>but always remember that it is a television show, and they will often do things that any survivalist will know is the exact wrong thing to do.<br>take drinking urine for example. urine has no benefit left for the body whatsoever. it has all been filtered out, plus there are many harmful bacteria in urine, that can prove fatal. if you feel the sudden urge to drink urine, distill it first.

i like fire more than you

I enjoyed the reading, most points were &quot;put through to the reader&quot;. A couple of extras, if you get rained on or fall in a creek (etc) keep moving. Your movement will keep your body warm and dry your clothes...don't overexert though as you may not know how long you will need to keep the energy stored in your body. Always always be carefull not to hurt yourself when building your Bivi or fire; compounds the situation if not just the wound. When camping/hiking don't sleep in the same clothing you've worn all day (the sweat will cool, leaving you to shiver all night, using precious energy and valuable rest for mind and body) use a dry change of clothes or butt naked if you happen to have a good sleeping bag. <br> If you think you'll be stuck for a couple of days, try adding a thick layer of dirt/sod to the roof of your Bivi for the extra insulation. <br> When baiting your &quot;deadfall&quot;, if you aren't using parts of an already dead animal...you could have used that bait for yourself. (besides, do you really want to eat a Fox/coyote even if you were starving?) Fishing and snares are the way to go. Snares should be on an already made path by the animal you are after. That reminds me, a hook and 3-4 feet of fishing line would fit in your survival tin. <br> If you want to burn green wood, use ALOT OF the smaller branches of pine/fir as the needles will burn bright hot and fast with lots of smoke.....used best if you hear a LOW LEVEL plane or helicopter. <br> I've had my share of &quot;adventures&quot; self inflicted or not. I can say i've nevre been lost but definately been &quot;stuck&quot; a few times, from hot dry days to freezing temps. It's never &quot;fun&quot; but you do what you can to survive...I still have all my fingers and toes too.<br>

i did it and a caught a fox THX

arent foxes a protected species?

depends on the species and location

Bear Grylls doesent count he has a crew
Les Stroud!!!

Yes, but Les knows where he is going by the end of the week. He knows where he'll be picked up. Bear doesn't. But he does have a crew so they both have their weeknesses.

Bear does not know where he is going????<br>I saw an episode once where he got in from see, up a creek, into a small indian village in the middle of nowehere and there just happened to be a helicopter that he could jump in with his camera crew, without asking questions.<br><br>No, he certainly does not know where he is going ;-)

ok

bear grylls does count he may have a crew but they dont help him or interact with him only when in dangerous situations

yeah they do in one of his jungle episodes they build a latter for him

exactly les could die and no one would know

Les had a support group less than half a mile away from him at all times. One episode where he is in Alaska he calls them on day three.<br><br>Besides, Bear was in the SAS. They have extensive survival training. Yes, parts of the show are staged, but the point of the show is to get information across. If he acted exactly how he would in real life, there would be no show because he would be rescued within the day.<br><br>Both of them are very knowledgeable and experienced survivalists. You don't have to pick one or the other.

did you know bear has a survival expert with him behind the camera, youtube &quot;man vs wild outtakes&quot; and you will see the guy giving bear pointers on how to do things. Its really funny.

Ha. I presume your being sarcastic?

les rocks

YES!!!

WOOT!

Ok than now what

no idea

ok

yep...

i like bear grylls better... but survivorman is more realistic because not all of us were formerly in the military and are like total beasts.

i'll agree with that

Bear Grylls is the champ at this http://howtohacklife101.blogspot.com/2011/05/how-to-build-fire.html

Bear is a presenter/host the guy is a hack he kills little furry animals just for the shows rating, disgraceful. Les knows his stuff, the guy quit the survivorman show because is was too much for him to film and survive at the same time. No crew for Les so props to him. <br> But the guy pictured above to the right of Bear is the man. His name is Ray Mears and he is the top survival expert in my opinion. Humble does not so off, he is a matter of fact kind of guy. I respects this guys opinion, and if anyone wants to learn anything at all about survival skills in any environment he's you man.

Hey bear gryls is better no one knows what les stroud has in that back pack of his he is out there alone no one would know what he has. at least with bear more people would know what he does.

Your not serious?? Your talking about Bear the man who faked a grizzly attack using one of his crew dressed in a bear suit?? Have you ever read the credits for his show?

You should change the beginning to say "The only way bear grilz survives is eating the food his camera crew brings for him to eat and sleeping in an insulated sleeping bag inside his custom made tent.

Exactly. He's a fake/wannabe.

what about survivor man

ya! wat about survivor man even though bear is awesome :D lol

&quot;Bear&quot; is a sham. He's been caught out several times. Check up on it. All he does is use shock factor - nothing useful.<br><br>Ray mears on the other hand is an expert in all aspects of survival and he provides useful information and shares his experience and knowledge.

Bear is entertaining but ridiculous. He has a camera crew and probably some local survival expert. Survivorman is just him...and a harmonica.

The Opinel knives, as shown in the picture, are wonderful for just about everything. Easy to sharpen, inexpensive, with a good lock, and long lasting if treated correctly. Make sure to dry them out and then oil them or the wood soaks up water, swells, and the knife becomes VERY hard to open-- it's essential to have the knife dried and well oiled before going out in the woods, you'll never get it dry if it's raining and you might not have oil to treat the handle with while you're out there. Always have stuff like that in good condition, sharp, and otherwise well prepared ahead of time.

yeah, i had heard about them long before i went to get one and it was twice as good as any knife in there that cost twice as much.
generally a good all round knife, if looked after like you say

yip ive taken over your instructable im sorry (not really) ,but if i save a life its all good,another serious thing here (south africa is a largly semi to desert country and hot) is sunstroke,heat exhaustion,dehydration,all diffrent but related.A hat is mandatory,moving in temperature of 40c ,45c and above is just not a realistic option,Wake early move in the morning stop under shade from 10 am till 3pm (you can push this envelope depending how hot it is) and move again.always be aware of water,make sure you have it and can get it,dont waste it ,plan your route according to it (manage it).The sun can kill you before you are even aware you have a problem ,heat exhaustion and dehydration can cause irrepairable damage to your body which after it reaches a certain point cannot be treated anyhow and you will die.You can go home and die a week later from damage that was caused while out in the field.

an just by the way ive got that same camo jacket,its really awesome ,actually ive got about 5 camo jackets (im a freak yes i know my girlfriend tells me every day and she loves me so i know shes not lying) but that particular camo is one of my favs. as for knives girlfriend an i both carry 1907 lee enfield bayonets strapped into our rucksacks so they cant be seen an can be easily reached.most usefull knife,axe,spade,weapon,tin opener etc but a little heavy. <br>if you ever get to south africa go hiking in the cedarberg its like bieng on another beautifull planet

the lesson that i learned i will never ever forget,we were lucky it was a small isolated cloud cluster.had it been an established cold front we could have been in deep poo.DO NOT TAKE NATURE FOR GRANTED EVER.dont play with mountain enviroments,they are beautiful and awesome (best places on earth) but extremely unpredicatable,vicious and unforgiving,needless to say i never go anywhere,even a desert hot place without a good all weather jacket and good boots anymore. you can die of hypothermia in a couple of hours and its all good an well having MRES,knives,fire makers etc etc but they are all useless if you freeze to death in the first six hours.

nice tutorial.ive read a couple of these survival things and ive found one thing that all have missed (3 acutally).As far as im concerned no matter what climate or terrain you are in the single most important item you require is a really good all wheather jacket and almost on par with this comes good socks and the best boots you can afford. <br>A couple of years back me and some friends went for a short, relaxed gentle day walk (on a marked trail) in the mountains along the coast, near cape town. <br>It was a beautifull summers day,we left early and about 9.30 am we were getting hot.Some small insignificant clouds appeared far away out to sea an we paid no attention. <br>The clouds moved real quick an by 11am had reached the coast and pushed up against the mountain and we were now in the clouds.You could literally feel the temperature dropping by the second.I had a m65 style bush jacket which i put on but it was useless,After 10 to 15 min we were wet and it was so cold that my hands and fingers were burning.visibility was down to about 5 to 10 meters. <br>We walked up through the cloud (about 2 hours) and once we were above it were back in 30degc sunshine.It was an absolutly awesome and unforgetable experience bieng above the clouds and seeing all the mountain peaks sticking out above them,it was also a little scary in the clouds.

I think those are the old &quot;school trip to France while the teachers not watching&quot; knife very famous, very good, and you can get them pretty much every where with lanes i.e. Brighton, London, some place in France where the teachers weren't paying attention